- A Canadian indicted for voting in the Wilmington area is just the latest case of noncitizen voting in North Carolina
- The State Board of Elections has systems for finding and removing noncitizens from voter rolls, but they are inadequate
- North Carolina should implement documentary proof of citizenship requirements for voting
A Canadian voted in several recent elections in North Carolina, demonstrating continued weakness in our state’s system of citizenship verification for voting. There are ways to strengthen citizenship verification. The strongest would be to require proof of citizenship to register, if that can be done without unduly burdening citizens’ right to vote.
How did a Canadian vote multiple times in North Carolina?
A federal grand jury for the United States District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina, indicted Denis Joseph Bouchard on August 26. The charges include two counts of making a “false statement and claim that he was a citizen of the United States in order to register to vote.” The indictment also charged that Bouchard “knowingly and willfully” deprived North Carolinians of a fair and impartially conducted election process through his fraud.
While the charges are related only to the 2022 and 2024 elections, a search of the North Carolina State Board of Elections (SBE) records reveals that Denis Joseph Bouchard voted nine times in New Hanover and Pender counties from 2004 to 2024 (see Figure 1). His registration has since been removed from the voter rolls.
(To find Bouchard’s record, type his name in the SBE’s voter search tool and check the “removed or denied” box at the bottom of the page.)
Figure 1: Voting history of Denis Joseph Bouchard
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections Voter Search page
Noncitizen voting is hardly new in North Carolina. An SBE audit after the 2016 election revealed that “41 non-citizens with legal status (green card, etc.) cast ballots.” That audit led to 19 indictments for illegal voting. Some of those noncitizens were registered due to a “glitch” at the Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) that pre-populated citizenship status on registration forms, causing noncitizens to register to vote.
Bouchard’s registration was not flagged in that 2016 audit, so we cannot say that “only” 41 noncitizens voted that year.
How do we know if a registered voter is a citizen?
There are two ways to keep noncitizens off state voter rolls. The first is to prevent them from registering. The second is to find and remove noncitizens from the rolls after they have registered.
The first line of defense, if you can call it that, is on the voter registration application. The first question on the application is “Are you a citizen of the United States of America?” It instructs anyone who checks “no” not to submit the form (see Figure 2). North Carolina does not require verification of citizenship status to register to vote, however.
Figure 2: Detail of a North Carolina Voter Registration Application
Source: North Carolina State Board of Elections
Election officials can also remove noncitizens from voter rolls if they become aware of their status.
North Carolina recently passed a law requiring election officials to remove people from the voter rolls who are excused from jury duty because they are not citizens. In early 2025, election officials removed three people from the voter rolls through the jury excusal process.
The SBE is also registered to use the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ SAVE program for voter list maintenance. The SAVE program is designed to verify “immigration status or U.S. citizenship.” North Carolina uses SAVE for list maintenance, but unlike other states, it does not use it to check citizenship status when people initially register.
One weakness of SAVE is that it can verify U.S. citizenship only based on Social Security Administration or Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records. In other words, election officials must be able to submit a Social Security Number or a DHS-issued number, such as an Alien Registration Number.
But that raises a question: If the SAVE program is supposed to help states keep noncitizens off voter rolls, how could Bouchard repeatedly vote in North Carolina over two decades? Furthermore, we cannot definitively say how many other noncitizens are currently on the voter rolls in North Carolina.
We can confirm citizenship for voter registration
There are ways to enhance citizenship verification for voting.
The federal government improved the SAVE program earlier this year to make it a “single, reliable source for verifying immigration status and U.S. citizenship nationwide.” Part of that improvement is that states can now submit more than one case at a time.
A further enhancement to SAVE is allowing searches using first name, last name, date of birth, and the last four digits of a Social Security number. The federal agency in charge of SAVE invited the SBE to participate in a “soft launch” of the new program, but the board decided that it could not meet the requirements by the August 29 deadline. The SBE will be able to join later.
Another option is to require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote. Six states and the territory of Guam require proof from all new registrants (Kansas’ law has been suspended by a court decision). Another three states, Georgia, Indiana, and Tennessee, require documentary proof if they cannot verify citizenship status through other data.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that proof of citizenship requirements violate the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 if registrants use the federal voter registration application, which states are required to accept. Several states opted not to enforce their requirements after that ruling. Therefore, North Carolina may have to adopt a policy of allowing only votes in federal races for those using the federal application and not presenting proof of citizenship. Arizona currently operates such a two-tier registration system.
The General Assembly should investigate the experience of states that require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Legislatures should then implement citizenship verification in North Carolina in a way that does not overburden the election system or citizens.
